Tuesday, 11 December 2012

London Comedy Writers

Welcome to my interview with Graham Trelfer, from London Comedy Writers.

*****

Hello Graham, can you tell us a bit about your writing group?

There is nice history of the group here. But
basically it was set up by Jack Milner in 2001, back then it was known as the
“East London Comedy Script Writers”, the group back then was based in
Stratford. It later moved to the Old Kings Head pub near London bridge and was
renamed “London Comedy Writers” or TheLCW. Meetings are held on a Tuesday night
every 2 weeks.

How many members, on average, does your group have?

It is hard to
know. Our newsletter goes out to over
1000 people, attendance goes from 30-50 people at a meeting.

Who are you and what is your role within the group?

I am Graham Trelfer, I run the website and chair the
meetings.

How are your sessions structured?

Prior to the meeting a sitcom and a couple of
sketches are selected, these are passed onto Robin Bailes who does the casting.
The meeting starts with everyone introducing themselves, the first writer then
introduces their sketch, the actors read it and then people offer their
feedback. This is then repeated for the sitcom and another sketch. On occasion the format changes and we do all
sketches, read the first 10 pages (for the Red Planet Prize) and 10 page
sitcoms (for Sitcom Trials and Sitcom Mission).

What types of things do you cover in your group?

Mainly sitcoms and sketches. We have tried film, plays, treatments and
extracts, but they never go down as well so we banned them. I would love to do more webisodes.